The General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information is a governmental authority endowed with a public juridical personality and enjoying financial and administrative independence. It is organizationally affiliated with the Minister of Defense, and its main headquarters is located in the city of Riyadh. The authority aims to regulate the sector of surveying, geospatial information, and imaging related to surveying and geospatial information activities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to achieve quality, improve performance, and maintain security aspects in coordination with the relevant entities.
Establishment of the General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information
In 1989, the authority began with the Council of Ministers issuing a decision to inventory all entities working in the field of surveying and map production, both governmental and others, and to collect and focus all their work into one device called the Central Surveying Administration, which will be responsible for any survey work needed by any governmental or non-governmental entity. In 2001, approval was issued by the Council of Ministers to convert the Central Surveying Administration at the Ministry of Defense into an authority called the General Authority for Surveying, to be a legal entity with an independent budget and administratively affiliated with the Minister of Defense. In 2006, the Council's approval was issued to organize the General Authority for Surveying and its structure and organizational guides, and later, the Council's approval was issued to organize the General Authority for Surveying and Geospatial Information in 2020.
Organizing the General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information
The authority has a board of directors that represents the supreme authority competent for managing its affairs, formulating general policy, and making necessary decisions to achieve its purposes within a set of its special powers. A president is also appointed to the authority based on a nomination from the chairman of the board, after the approval of the Prime Minister, to be the executive responsible for managing the authority. His responsibilities are focused within the limits stipulated by the regulation, in addition to a set of powers and competencies, including supervising the administrative, financial, and technical work of the authority, following up on the implementation of the decisions issued by the council, proposing the body's organizational structure and its financial, internal, technical, and administrative regulations, presenting them to the council, supervising their implementation after their approval, and other powers and competencies stipulated by the organizational guide of the authority.
The authority is allocated an independent annual budget issued by a Royal Decree, in addition to its financial resources from what is allocated to it in the state's general budget and the financial equivalent for any work, product, service, license, or permit provided by the authority, in addition to movable and immovable properties at its disposal, or which are transferred to it from other entities, funds resulting from the authority's investments, and from its resources what the council accepts in terms of donations, contributions, grants, wills, and endowments.
Mandates of the General Authority for Survey and Geospatial Information
The authority has several mandates, including:
1. Establishing and updating fundamental and guiding standards and controls related to the sector.
2. Proposing systems related to the sector after presenting them to the Council.
3. Adopting and developing the national geospatial infrastructure, the national geodetic reference, national geodetic networks, hydrographic marine surveying, and providing data, products, services, electronic applications, topographic and aerial maps, and related nautical navigation charts for the sector, marketing them, and maintaining their security and confidentiality.
4. Preparing strategic plans, conducting studies and research related to the sector, and working to activate them in collaboration with relevant entities.
5. Licensing the practice of activities in the sector, supervising the qualification and classification of practitioners, and establishing regulatory rules.
6. Working to protect the interests of the sector's beneficiaries.
7. Preparing the sector to be attractive for investment and stimulating its growth.
8. Working to develop national competencies in the sector in cooperation with universities and specialized institutes within and outside the Kingdom.
9. Coordinating and cooperating with counterparts in other countries and relevant international bodies and organizations in accordance with regulatory procedures.
10. Representing the Kingdom both domestically and internationally in matters related to its competencies, in accordance with regulatory procedures.
11. Supervising the issuance and updating of the Kingdom’s atlases and working to develop them in coordination with relevant entities.
12. Working to provide information and studies related to the Kingdom's terrestrial and maritime borders concerning the sector, offering related consultations, and developing a database for this purpose in coordination with relevant entities.
13. Providing consultations and services related to the sector to governmental and private entities and others within and outside the Kingdom.
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